TDE newcomer Isaiah Rashad’s best offering of 2013 came with this infectious hook laden remix of his original “I Shot U Down”. Featuring fellow TDE spitters Jay Rock & Schoolboy Q, the hard drums and longer verses propel the track to new heights. If it’s anything to go by, we could be looking at a future addition to the Black Hippy quartet.

Another collaboration between good friends J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar led to one of the top singles off of Cole's album "Born Sinner". While Kendrick does not deliver a verse on it, the hook he gives us still is soothing and paints the religious theme throughout the song. Cole delivers two solid verses, talking about religion, his inner struggle, and even saying why he dropped his album the same day as Kanye West. One more from Lil Cole!

This is truly Tyler at his finest. From his beat to his bars, this track showcases Tyler’s supreme artistic talent. Oh, and there’s THAT VIDEO! The talk-rap, slow flow is personal and poetic. He combines crooning with curses effortlessly and elevates the track in doing so. The beat builds like a film. He even directed his idol Pharrell’s angelic voice on the bridge, with a melody Tyler created himself. Sonically this track was standout, and then he made that video and this became undeniably next-level.

Perhaps the universal favorite from the album, this is a dark, entrancing look at the compulsive and haunting power of our past loves/infatuations. Like The Boy driving down Telegraph Ave, we can spend our time retreading the same roads thinking about “what ifs” and reminiscing about things lost – sometimes alongside the people with whom we lost them. But unless we decide to do something about all those lost things – whether to try again, or to walk away for good – all that wandering isn’t going to do us any good. Using Lloyd’s “Oakland” literally in the song, Gambino cleverly plays both rapper and listener creating and experiencing the track with us.

The first single off Acid Rap, Juice was one of the big breakthroughs this year for Chance. The first thing that catches your ears is Chance’s sing-songy, cartoony flow which you can’t help singing along to (some jumping around is mandatory). But listen closely, and you get Chancelor’s dope bars: dense, great-sounding internal rhymes and clever Chicago references. As you’re headbanging through the verse though, you’re hit with that absolutely HYPE chorus that is guaranteed to make you lose your shit. What you’re left with is one of the catchiest, most memorable songs of 2013 and a high point in the spectacular year Chance has had.

When the MMLP2 tracklist was revealed, Love Game was one of the most heavily-anticipated tracks; everyone was envisioning a Renegade-level back-and-forth between Em and Kendrick. But the song turned out to be as left-field as possible. Backed by a quirky Rick Rubin-produced instrumental that could’ve come straight from the ‘50s (cheesy sample included), Eminem describes his time with an unfaithful woman in hilarious detail, while Kendrick emulates Em’s flow and raps about his experiences with the infamous Sherane. Although a largely comical song, Love Game still has a lot of great rhymes, with an especially phenomenal third verse by Em. Despite their bad experiences with women, Marshall and K.Dot let us know that they’re always going to be playing the game of love!

“Started From The Bottom”, produced by Mike Zombie, was the first single off Drake's Nothing Was The Same album. The track was released in February and peaked at #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It has since been certified 2x Platinum. Some may doubt if Drake really did ‘start at the bottom’, but with 2.2 million pageviews on Rap Genius and one of the catchiest hooks of the year, there is no doubt that this track was one of the biggest anthems of 2013.

The lead single for Because the Internet is quintessential Childish Gambino, but is also a great showcase for the artist’s development over the last two years. It’s a good sampling of the album’s overall sound and texture. Gambino paints a great picture of how, if you don’t have someone you really care about beside you, you can be completely alone in a crowded room, to say nothing of dealing with the rest of the shit life throws at you. He both raps and sings exceptionally well and effortlessly here. Gambino also gave us a pleasantly metaphorical video to accompany the song and make us think even more.

Two generations of Chicago hip-hop converge on this mixtape cut, with one artist already garnering national attention introducing another to the scene and re-introducing an OG from his city. Vic steals the show with an urgent and unforgiving verse, and Chance happily cedes the spotlight to him, restraining himself to an unassumingly spry and sing-songy verse; Twista, on the other hand, is not quite so willing to take a back seat, successfuly lacing the track with his trademark double-time bars. But amidst the aggressively fast raps of the trio, the hook has a contrastingly soothing melody that rounds out the entire production. This track firmly announces that hip-hop is once again Chicagoan.

A cut between two of Top Dawg Entertainment's main artists, Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar came in to make a party banger just in time for summer. Schoolboy Q delivers a solid verse about his favorite things, (and how other people can't have them), before Kendrick comes in with that Español that makes this verse so memorable. The hook might be a little random, but the vibe it generates makes it infectious upon first listen.

When word dropped that Daft Punk would be working with Kanye West on his new album, it was fair to assume it would result in a genre-blending song like Stronger. What we ended up with was indeed a blend of genres, but instead of electronic synths and filtered vocals, we got primal screams and distorted 808’s. Kanye is pissed off, but not the kind of pissed he gets about croissantsor Jimmy Kimmel. No, Ye is fed up with people questioning his choices and he’s frustrated that nobody is taking risks anymore. And it’s palpable in this song, which represents the rebellious, IDGAF attitude that flows from both Kanye and Yeezus. Using few else but drums and vocal sounds you’d more likely hear exploring the Amazon than in Hip Hop, Kanye crafts an uneasy, raw instrumental that pairs perfectly with his blunt lyrics

Drake crafts one of the most memorable tracks of 2013 with the outro to his third studio LP Nothing Was The Same. Boi-1da delivers on Pound Cake with a spacey Ellie Goulding sample as Drizzy paints the picture about what his life has been like while recording and making the album.The song isn’t finished there by any means. After two Jay verses, Drake comes back in for Paris Morton Music 2 and a perfect verse to remind us this is his song. The extra long PMM 2 verse is also very personal, looking back on the landscape of his career and perhaps how he’s no longer the same

Sequels to much-loved properties are rarely a good idea. For every The Empire Strikes Back, there are three Matrix Reloadeds. So when word leaked out that Em had recorded a follow-up to his epic 2000 story-song “Stan,” fans were nervous. After all, Stan died at the end, right?So what’s left?Plenty, as it turns out. Marshall turned a potentially bad idea into fantastic art with his imagining of Stan’s little brother Matthew (with the autographed Starter cap), now all grown up and seeking revenge. But just as the tale reaches its apex, the song switches perspective, revealing an intense look at Eminem’s self-doubts and anguish. Just before the end, he drops the biggest gem of all: his in-song tormentors are “just symbolic/Of not knowing what you had ‘til it’s gone.” The rapper himself may not know, but trust us, Slim, we do.

"New Slaves" is best described as an “open letter” from Kanye West to the people - made into music. Produced by the Very G.O.O.D Beats crew, New Slaves is sonically simplistic yet still possesses melody courtesy of the droning synths. Frank Ocean assists on the outro, providing an amazing contrast to the aggressive tone used throughout the song, acting in a reflective manner. However from a lyrical standpoint it’s without a doubt one of Kanye’s greatest songs. He labeled verse 2 as the “best verse of all time” and with topics that range from modern day slavery to the fashion industry, and even America's prison system, it’s hard to disagree

Just as Mandela blew up the buildings and eventually became president. Contrary to popular opinion, sometimes you have to blow up the building.— Kanye West

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About “Top 100 Rap Songs of 2013”

The RG community (i.e. THE WORLD) has spoken, and we present to you the most comprehensive list of 2013’s best rap songs.

In what was one of Hip Hop’s most meaningful years in a very long time, we saw releases from just about every major player. There were bangers, name-drops, screenplays, #newrules, realllly long songs and much more. This list boils all those tracks down to the ones we’ll remember the most, ones we’re still bumping, and ones that hit us the hardest.

This list is crowdsourced and curated by RG Editors. Note: Only 4 tracks per main artist can appear on the list!